


Three Sisters

by raynewton



Category: Three sisters
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-06
Updated: 2013-11-06
Packaged: 2017-12-31 16:46:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,432
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1033991
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/raynewton/pseuds/raynewton
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Blair's fate is decided by an ouside agency</p>
            </blockquote>





	Three Sisters

Three Sisters by Ray Newton

 

It was a normal, tranquil morning in the Moirai household. Clo hummed quietly as her distaff spun the threads that were so valued, the sound of her song changing with the gauge of the threads, from the coarsest of fibres to the delicate, almost invisible silks.

Lachie found herself echoing the music as she took her turn at the small domestic tasks they shared, exchanging a smile with Attie who was bending over the whetstone, her keen gaze evaluating the sharpness of the blades.

It was good to know that their purpose in life was valued, needed; good also to know that the sisters were fulfilling that task entrusted to them by their parents. Finishing her chores she joined the others, seating herself between them and taking her own work into her hands. 

No, there was nothing unusual that day - until Lachie became aware of a discord between her sisters.

"It's time," Clo said firmly.

"No, I won't." Attie was calm, but equally determined.

The smooth rhythm of their interraction was disrupted. Lachie sighed, aware that as the middle sister it was up to her to resolve the dispute. She glanced to her right; Clo was holding an empty distaff, her expression sorrowful but resigned. To her left Attie gripped her shears by the blades, as though to stress her determination not to use them.

"You know you must," Clo urged gently. "I agree, this is a sad one, but we make decisions like this all the time."

"And we also have the discretion __not __to make them. This time... this time, Clo, I think we should reconsider."

"The rules..."

"We've broken the rules before. When Dad gave us this job he also gave us the right to question. Please let's talk about this for a while. Lachie, we don't have to rush, do we?"

Lachie looked down at the shimmering skein in her lap. "Time doesn't matter here," she agreed. "If this is important to Attie, we should discuss it."

Clo nodded, and laid the distaff down. "It's a murder. Blair Sandburg, drowned in a fountain by Alex Barnes. Attempted resuscition has failed, and his thread has spun out." 

Lachie's eyes clouded as her inner sight focussed on the scene under discussion. "Who are the others?"

"The one being pulled off the body is his partner, Jim Ellison; he's a cop. The others are fellow officers."

"Blair doesn't look much like a policeman."

"He's not. He's an observer with the police department. Works with Ellison."

"Odd that the others seem so concerned. Cops don't usually take to civilians riding along."

"Doesn't that tell you something?" Attie said urgently. "He's a special case."

"They all are," Clo murmured sadly. "We can't just let our feelings take over - there has to be a system."

"I don't deny that. I'm just saying..."

"Girls, let's take this calmly. Attie, you know we need a really good reason to change what is ordained. Clo, don't pretend you've never interfered. Now let's think for a few moments, then we can talk about it."

The three sisters pulled their chairs closer together, each one marshalling her arguments for the discussion to come. They had been here before. Each in turn had proposed breaking the rules; each in turn had resisted the suggestion. In this case Lachie knew she would be the one holding the balance.

"All right," Lachie began quietly. "We all know how these situations arise. Remember, when I argued for that CI5 agent, Ray Doyle? That was murder, too. That time you were determined to cut the thread, Attie; Clo, there was so little thread left on the distaff."

"But there was some. He was fighting for his life - we just gave him time."

"That's the point - he __wasn't __fighting. He was waiting. It was only when Bodie came for him that he responded. It was Bodie's fear, Bodie's grief, that made me argue for Ray." Lachie gestured to the scene before them. "I see that same fear, that same grief, in Jim Ellison. And Blair... he's waiting, too. He needs to know if he should stay or go."

"He must go," Clo said implacably. "His thread has spun out. I know he'll be mourned, and I'm sorry, but we can't make an exception just because someone will miss him."

"They're Sentinel and Guide," Attie said, leaning forward as though she would touch the drowned face before them. "Can't that make a difference?"

Clo drew a painful breath. "So rare, and so precious," she whispered. "I wish it __could __make the difference."

Attie smiled indulgently at her sister. "So what does make the difference for you, Clo?" she asked.

"What do you mean?"

"Two words. Daniel Jackson."

"Oh."

"Yes, Oh. Did you think we hadn't noticed? Just how many times have you spun the distaff for him?"

"Let's think." Lachie joined in the affectionate teasing. "There was Abydos; the time on the Go'auld ship; the sarcophagus addiction should really have killed him; that time on Jonas Whatsisname's planet..."

"Okay, okay." Clo held her hands up, laughing. "I admit I couldn't bear to part Danny and Jack O'Neill, but look what happened - I spun the extra thread, and he Ascended. Maybe it was a warning not to meddle; why should we have the right to say who lives and who dies?"

"Because we were given that right, and the power to make our decisions a reality." Attie was serious again. "I've cut the thread so often when I'd give anything to spare a life. Why were we given that power if we weren't meant to use it?"

"You know, I've often wondered about that," Lachie said. "The mortals say that Necessity is the mother of Invention. Well, since Themis neglected to give us a brother, perhaps we're meant to do his job as well as our own."

"I don't understand," Clo frowned, and Attie nodded in agreement.

"Well, I'm really feeling my way here, but look. We spin, measure and cut the thread of life, right?"

The two sisters nodded.

"Well suppose... suppose that sometimes we're __meant __to interfere? What if, just sometimes, the span of life allocated is... is foreshortened? As if there's some power that interferes with what is meant to be?"

"You really have been thinking about this, haven't you? Have you any idea who this power is?"

"You know, Attie, I think I do. I think it's Aphrodite."

"Now why would Aphrodite want to interfere with mortal lives, Lachie? She's the goddess of love - why would she be concerned about the length of a Human life?"

"That puzzled me too, for a long time, then I finally saw the connection. Think about this. Gilgamesh; Heracles; Achilles; Alexander; your Daniel Jackson, Clo; my Ray Doyle; your Blair Sandburg, Attie. And do you premember Spock of Vulcan, that Starfleet officer we'll all be determined to save? And there have been and will be hundreds of others."

"What's your point?"

"What's the one thing they all have in common?"

"I don't... Oh!"

Lachie grinned. "You've got it, Attie."

"Me too," Clo laughed. "All through history and into the future, pairs of lovers."

"And in each and every case one of the pair died, or was killed, or came near to death unnaturally early. The ones that survived did so because for Daniel, for Ray, for Spock, we intervened. Clo spun the distaff when the thread had run out, I measured the extra skein, Attie refused to cut the thread when she should have done."

"I still don't understand why you think Aphrodite is responsible."

"When I started to think about it I wondered why there were so many many instances where only one of the pair was harmed. Then I realised - male lovers would not worship Aphrodite. You know how jealous, how capricious she is. What if she decided to destroy their love in the hope that the survivor would seek out a woman to replace his mate, and so validate her power?"

"Oops!" Attie grinned. "You mean every time we've saved one of these lovers, we've annoyed  
Aphrodite?"

"I think Lachie's hit the mark," Clo nodded. "And there's nothing she can do about it - Dad made sure we had absolute authority to decide our actions."

"So now we know what's going on, we can take that into consideration," Attie said. 

"And the decision will be only ours." Lachie glanced at her sisters. "So what do we do about Blair Sandburg?"

"I don't think there's any doubt, do you?" With a smile Clo picked up her distaff and began to spin.

**Author's Note:**

> The three sisters are inspired by The Fates


End file.
